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San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Javier Lopez pitches the seventh inning against the San Diego Padres at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, May 6, 2015. Lopez was tagged for a run as the Padres won 9-1. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–First-year president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi didn’t sign many major league free agents this winter, but the first one he acquired is no longer expected to open the year with the Giants.

Pat Venditte, a versatile switch-pitcher signed to provide bullpen depth, was among four players sent out of camp after Thursday’s loss to the Diamondbacks. Venditte and utility player Austin Slater were optioned following the game while right-handed reliever Derek Law and infielder Zach Green were reassigned to minor league camp.

The decision to option Venditte and Slater doesn’t come as a major surprise as both have struggled in Cactus League play and both can be sent back and forth from Triple-A Sacramento to San Francisco as needed throughout the year.

With Venditte out of the equation, the Giants still have more than a dozen pitchers in major league camp competing for bullpen roles. A handful of pitchers including Chris Stratton and Tyler Beede are being stretched out like starters this spring, but their best path to a major league job could come as long relievers.

Slater opened the spring as a legitimate candidate to earn an Opening Day roster spot as a part-time outfielder and utility player, but he went 5-for-27 with just one extra base hit before being sent down. Should the Giants choose to keep just three or four outfielders on their 25-man roster, other utility players like Yangervis Solarte and Alen Hanson can provide additional coverage in left field.

The trimming does little to provide clarity as to how the Giants will ultimately structure their roster. Slater and Venditte are depth pieces who will almost certainly contribute to the major league club at some point this season, but the Giants won’t have room for either player at the outset of the season.

Roster decisions haven’t been the only topic of discussion in Giants camp over the last few days, either. Major League Baseball announced Thursday new rule changes that will be implemented in 2020.

Some of the highlights include the expansion of rosters to 26 players, the adoption of a universal July 31 trade deadline and a rule that would require pitchers to face a minimum of three batters.

When told of some of the changes, one Giants veteran grumbled: “Baseball is becoming too complicated for me.”

A three-batter minimum rule has the chance to significantly change the way managers deploy relief pitchers, a point that Bruce Bochy considered following Thursday’s game against Arizona. Though Bochy will have retired by the time the three-batter minimum rule is in place, he pointed to one of his guest instructors this week as someone whose career would have looked different under the regulation.

“I’m looking at a guy that played a critical role in our success, Javy Lopez, and that might have affected his career,” Bochy said. “He was a left-handed specialist.”

Lopez appeared in 446 games over seven seasons with the Giants and faced just one batter in 192 of those appearances. A pitcher won’t be required to face three batters if an inning ends before a third hitter comes to the plate, but Lopez thinks he would have had to further develop his approach against right-handers if the rule existed when he played.

“My first thoughts were that I’m thankful I’m retired,” Lopez said. “It would obviously affect me and now that you look forward to 2020, and now you would know exactly when I would be coming in. It would be with two outs or one out and I would have to get out of the inning and be done with it.”

Lopez said he wasn’t a true left-handed specialist until he arrived in San Francisco and pitched for Bochy because he was accustomed to throwing at least a full inning during his time in the American League.

The rule change shouldn’t have much of an impact on two veteran Giants’ lefties, Tony Watson and Will Smith, as both are used in high-leverage situations against righties and lefties. However, any young specialists coming through the Giants’ minor league system will begin adjusting to the three-batter minimum rule immediately as Major League Baseball will test out the change in the minors this year.

As with any reform, there are those in favor and those who will remain skeptical for quite some time.

“I do like this dialogue, but I don’t know about three-pitcher minimums,” Lopez said. “When you want to play a game that has no time clock to it, why try to put so much time on it? I don’t think anybody has really come up with a good answer for me.”

Kerry Crowley is a multimedia beat reporter covering the San Francisco Giants. He spent his early days throwing curveballs in San Francisco’s youth leagues before studying journalism at Arizona State University. Kerry has covered every level of baseball, from local preps to the Cape Cod League, and is now on a quest to determine which Major League city serves the best cheeseburger.